China to offer Taliban tariff-free trade as it inches closer to isolated resource-rich regime
China will offer the Taliban tariff-free access to its vast construction, energy and consumer sectors, Beijing’s envoy to Afghanistan said on Thursday.
BEIJING, China — China will offer the Taliban tariff-free access to its vast construction, energy and consumer sectors, Beijing’s envoy to Afghanistan said on Thursday, as the ailing resource-rich but diplomatically-isolated regime looks to build up its markets.
Beijing has sought to develop its ties with the Taliban since they took control of Afghanistan in 2021, but like all governments has refrained from formally recognizing the Islamic fundamentalist group’s rule amid international concern over its human rights record and those of women and girls.
But the impoverished country could offer a wealth of mineral resources to boost Beijing’s supply chain security although it risks becoming a haven for militant groups threatening China’s Xinjiang region and huge investments in neighboring Pakistan.
Selling Afghanistan’s lithium, copper and iron deposits to feed China’s enormous battery and construction industries would help the Taliban prop up their economy, which the U.N. says has “basically collapsed,” and provide a much needed revenue stream as the country’s overseas central bank reserves remain frozen.
“China will offer Afghanistan zero-tariff treatment for 100% tariff lines,” Zhao Xing, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote on his official X account late on Thursday, above a photo of him meeting acting deputy prime minister Abdul Kabir.
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